Pennsylvanians understand that it’s unfair that people buy items online and don’t pay sales tax, after all, if they buy the exact same item in a physical store, they would pay the tax.

There must be a more even playing field for businesses, but Gov. Corbett has to be fair and realistic.

His administration insisted Pennsylvanians collect receipts for all their online and other out-of-state purchases in 2011 and self-calculate the taxes.

The reality was few people kept all those receipts, let alone could make sense of what falls under the sales tax and what doesn’t because the state has so many exemptions.

Even worse, his administration didn’t make a big fuss out of this until November — mere days before the end of the tax year.

We warned that only a handful of honest people (and those who most feared being audited) would bother paying the so-called “use tax” on online purchases.

We were right.

Use tax revenues for 2011 came in well below expectations. The Department of Revenue forecasted a modest $5.1 million would be collected.

As of May 7, it had only collected $3.3 million. It just reiterates how foolish this approach was.

A better idea is to work with online retailers and have them collect the sales taxes when purchases are made — just like what happens in a physical store.

To its credit, the state has been negotiating with online businesses. By September, online retailers with a physical presence in the state must begin collecting the sales tax. Amazon falls into that category.

Let’s stop this nonsense of self-reporting on online purchases. It isn’t bringing in much money, and it’s only causing headaches for the small minority of people who bother to comply.

The state’s attention and resources would be better served focusing on a smooth transition in September.

If done right, there will finally be sales tax parity between online and physical retailers, and the state could generate substantial revenues.

Carnegie Mellon professor Robert Strauss has forecasted as much as $388 million a year could come to Pennsylvania if this is done properly.

There are still loopholes that online retailers can exploit to avoid collecting the sales tax, especially if they don’t have a physical presence in the state. It would be ideal if the federal government finally acted to end that loophole.

But the September deadline is a start — and a far better one than the cumbersome and misguided method of Pennsylvanians needing to figure it all out themselves.